


If I can stop us from having sex, I can stop anything.

by all_their_intricacies



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: And they both don't wanna talk about their feelings, Friends With Benefits, Humorous Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Prompt Fill, Wherein Liam thinks too much about Theo, While Theo thinks too little of himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 22:24:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18765490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_their_intricacies/pseuds/all_their_intricacies
Summary: who wants something written for Thiam based on the line "If I can stop us from having sex, I can stop anything." they'd caught in Dynasty.Enjoy!





	If I can stop us from having sex, I can stop anything.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [manonlemelon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manonlemelon/gifts).



> who wants something written for Thiam based on the line "If I can stop us from having sex, I can stop anything." they'd caught in Dynasty.
> 
> Enjoy!

It’s something that Liam likes to think about, on nights like this one especially. Nights where he’s comfortable in his bed, underneath a warm blanket, and more than anything, in the arms of someone who he’s been spending too much time thinking about lately.

He wishes that wasn’t the true, how he thinks too much about Theo. The other thing—the ability to stop this little thing between them—well, that's the opposite.

Liam doesn’t mean to say it out loud, though the words have been haunting over the ridges of his brain for too long now. They ring loudly in his head, followed by something that tastes a little like guilt, like fear, and like longing—nothing good so he keeps it as just that: a thought.

But thoughts do tend to turn into words, in the heat of the moment, when Liam’s heart beats too fast in his chest, alongside with the rhythm of Theo’s heart in his ears. And so, he buries his face in the crook of Theo’s neck, taking a deep breath filled with Theo’s scent—of his arousal, of his pleasure and something much deeper that Liam cannot name—and whispers, “If I can stop us from having sex, I can stop anything.”

It’s just a tiny whisper; a confession to only the wind passing outside the window and the heated air surrounding them. It wasn’t meant to be heard by another soul, especially not Theo, but it was, anyway. Heard, that is.

There’s a stilled breath, then a chuckle, and a great urge to look up and find out for himself what Theo is feeling—because he hasn’t been trying to hide his emotions too hard, lately, not when he’s with Liam and not when they’re tangled together like this. But looking up would mean showing his face, and Theo can read Liam even better than Liam can read him, and he can’t risk showing something that would expose him and destroy whatever they’ve managed to build between them.

Liam stills his hips, the momentum lost, and something that feels like charged electric rises between them. The ensuing silence is loud and ringing in Liam’s ears like thunder. He wishes he hadn’t said anything at all.

“C’mon, Little Wolf,” Theo urges, just a moment later, fingers clawing at Liam’s bicep. “Why’d you stop?”

Liam answers by moving his hips again, in the way that he knows will satisfy Theo the best, that will draw the sweetest sounds out of him. Liam tries to focus on that, on the sounds that Theo is making—that they are both making. He tries to focus on the scent of Theo all around him, of hands exploring his body, of the point where their bodies connect.

_If he can stop this, then he can stop anything._

It’s wishful thinking only, something that should be kept as a passing thought and just that alone. He tries to keep his focus on anything else, but it’s hard, especially when it’s already out there in the open.

This is not the time, though, to talk about it, so he keeps snapping his hips until Theo comes with a groan, spilling over his hand and stomach, and it’s hard for Liam to hold back after that, coming from the sight and the friction around him.

He pulls out slowly, settling himself besides Theo on the bed as they both catch their breaths, letting the afterglow seeping into their skin.

It’s quiet, for a moment, just the sound of their breaths and racing hearts as background noises while their thoughts roam.

“Just say no, then,” Theo says, when he finally catches his breath. His voice is neutral, so void of emotions that Liam almost looks over, but stops himself just in time, keeping his eyes on the ceiling instead. “The next time this happens. Just say no and we’ll stop.”

“It’s not that easy, Theo, you know that,” Liam says—reminds him, rather—because it’s not, and they both know that.

It’s not easy with the way Theo had come back to Beacon Hills, and it’s not easy with all the things that have happened from that point until now. It’s not easy with Liam, who’s too stubborn to say all the things that he wants to say just because he doesn’t want to be the first to say it. It’s not easy with Theo, either, who thinks of himself as too damaged and broken to allow himself anything good. It’s definitely not easy with this thing between them—friends, but not _just_ friends; lovers, but never beyond that.

It’s not fucking easy because once it’s started, either with Theo or Liam as the initiator, because at that point, they’re both too high on the idea of what’s going to come next to utter the word ‘ _no’_ and end all of this.

It’s not easy, and Theo should have known better than to say that it is.

Theo seems to have realized that too, because Liam hears the shuffling of the blanket as Theo moves to sit up. Liam tries not to stare too hard at his naked back, at the healing scratch marks left by Liam’s claws some moments ago when he was too caught up in the it to notice. Theo heaves a sigh as he bends down to pick up his scattered clothes on the floor, before hastily putting them on. 

There are too many things that Liam wants to say right now, as he watches Theo dress, but the words are stuck in his throat, refusing to be let out.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Theo says, when he’s done putting his clothes on and standing in the middle of Liam’s room, his back facing him. 

“I don’t know what I want, either,” Liam replies, to himself mostly, moving his eyes back on the ceiling again. 

For a too-long moment neither of them says anything, and Theo keeps standing there in the middle of Liam’s room, head bent low as he thinks it over, as Liam tries to force the things he wants to say out of his mouth. 

In the end, he just sits up on the bed and watches the way Theo moves to the door, silently, statically. Liam wants to reach out and touch him, or take his hand and tell him to stay, but something in the way that Theo holds himself right now tells Liam that he won’t. Not for tonight, at least.

“What do _you_ want?” Liam finds himself saying, when Theo still lingers at his bedroom door, hand on the handle but not twisting to open it. It tears at his insides to watch Theo like this—to just watch and not be able to do anything as Theo slips away from him.

It’s too heavy of a question to ask at this time of the night, after what they just did. It’s also something that Liam has been thinking too much as of late, amongst his other thoughts of Theo.

These days, he spends too much time thinking about Theo’s eyes, of how green they are, of how sometimes they’re not green but blue or grey or a mix of colors that equates to a heaven that Liam wants to drown himself in. He thinks about Theo’s smile—his real smile, the one that only Liam gets a taste of when they’re in the privacy of his bedroom. He thinks about how Theo fits so perfectly in his arms, how he’s always so soft when he’s with Liam, and how he always comes when Liam calls for him.

When they’re not together, then Liam would think about where Theo might be, and though those times are rare, these days, it still happens. He thinks about whether Theo is safe, all alone in his truck because the asshole still won’t take up Liam’s offer to stay in the spare room in his house, and whether he’s happy or not.

Above all, Liam catches himself too many times, thinking about what Theo wants, and whether or not those things include him. Being with him. _Staying_ with him. 

It’s a constant stream of thoughts that’s been running through his mind too much, lately, and at this very moment, it’s at the forefront of his brain, demanding all of his attention. Liam bites the inside of his cheek as he waits for Theo’s response. When it comes, finally, it comes slowly, carefully, and a part of Liam already knows what Theo’s going to say.

That still doesn’t trumps the disappointment rising in him though, when Theo says it in that slow, tired voice of his.

“Does it matter?”

Theo spares him a look through the corner of his eye, a second too short, and then he’s gone, faster than Liam can call for his name. In a blink of an eye, Theo is out of Liam’s bedroom, and his footsteps echo in the empty space that keeps getting emptier with each centimeter Theo puts between himself and Liam. The front door opens and shuts. Theo’s truck starts up and _one, two, three, four, five,_ and Theo’s gone.

Liam rubs a hand down his face and lies back on his bed. He feels so stupid for saying what he said in the first place, and then he feels angry for the way Theo reacts. Most of all, though, he feels relieved, because there’s too many unspoken things between them, and this could be the first step in the long journey to get those things finally spoken.

The next hours to come are rough on Liam. He can’t fall asleep with the heady smell of sex still lingers in the air, mixed in with Theo’s scent on his pillow, and the fresh memories of him still clinging to Liam’s mind.

He twists and turns in bed until his alarm clock ticks somewhere between hour 3 and 4 in the morning, and he falls asleep without dreaming, then jolts awake by the alarm ringing loudly in the air. 

Today’s school day, and Liam will see Theo again at school, and they will talk, clearing up all of this muddy water between them, and everything will be fine again.

That’s the plan, but life rarely goes according to plans, as Liam has found out so many near-death experiences ago, and today is no different.

His parents already left for work by the time Liam comes downstairs, meaning he has to walk to school today. They left a note telling him where to find breakfast, and some money for lunch. His mom’s neat writings reminds him not to be late again, and a glance at the clock on his phone tells him he’s going to be, if he doesn’t haul ass to school.

He arrives at school sweaty and out of breath, and there’s no Theo to be seen.

Liam looks for him between classes, passing by his locker just to check, but he’s never there. Liam looks for him at lunch, furiously looking around the cafeteria in search of a pair of green eyes that he’s grown to like so much, but he still can’t find Theo.

Mason tsk’d him once, for not paying attention to what his best friend is saying, before accompanying it with a sigh.

“Just give him some space, man,” he says, after Liam has explained what happened, and Corey has told him that Theo texted to say that he wasn’t coming to school today.

A part of Liam is glad that the two are on speaking terms again, while the other part tries not to feel hurt and guilty that Theo texted Corey instead of him, that they’re talking again and Liam didn’t even realize until now.

Mason gives him a ride back home after school, and Liam is grateful for that at least. He gradually becomes less grateful as Mason keeps sending him all these meaningful looks through the rear mirror that Liam pretends he doesn’t see. Just like how he pretends his heart doesn’t jump when he catches sight of a certain blue truck parked outside his house, or the familiar scent of a certain someone as he gets out of Mason’s car before he can pull it to a stop.

Theo is waiting for Liam in his bedroom, sitting on Liam’s bed and looking so out of place despite all the times he’s spent in here. He looks up when Liam walks through the door, his gaze tired and defeated, burnt out because of a night of restless sleep not unlike Liam’s.

Liam stands underneath the door frame, his backpack hung low on one shoulder, mind swirling with thoughts of how to approach this matter. He can go about it calmly, but the devil on his shoulder scoffs at that, and Liam thinks, yeah, when did he ever approach anything in a calmly manner?

And Theo, fucking Theo with his pretty face and his soft smile and his exhausted eyes looking at Liam like Liam is something invaluable while himself is not. Fucking Theo, of course, knows of the storm to come, because he knows Liam too well, and he just sits there, unmovingly, ready to take it all.

“Where were you today?” Liam snaps, more harshly than he meant to , and Theo doesn’t answer right away, because he’s still waiting for a storm, and yeah, a storm is what to come. It comes in the form of a rant, loud and wild, and it all boils down to: _You made me so worried, you asshole. I thought I’d lost you again._

“I was in the preserve, just running around,” Theo answers, languidly. “I didn’t feel like going to school today, and I got some stuff I needed to think about.”

“What stuff?” Liam asks, still catching his breath as he crosses his arms over his chest, pinning Theo in place with a hard stare.

Theo shrugs. “Stuff.” 

Yeah, as if that clears everything up. 

For a moment, they don’t say anything, as Liam watches Theo through critical eyes, trying to tame down his own anger to try and figure Theo out.

“You really want to stop?” Theo asks, eyes caught on the floor, and Liam frowns.

“Stop what?”

“Us. Having sex.”

Theo looks uncertain, in the way his shoulders are hunched and his shoes are scuffing against the wooden boards of Liam’s bedroom floor. He looks like he doesn’t want to have this conversation, and Liam can relate, he really can, because despite their vastly different past, Liam isn’t any better at emotions than Theo is.

But this has been a long time coming, and they need to talk about this. They need to work through this, clear everything up between them before they can move on and live their lives the way Liam wants them to. _Together._

“No, Theo. I don’t want us to stop,” Liam says after a moment.

“Why’d you say it then?”

Liam snorts, shrugging. “It’s just a thought.”

Theo chuckles, though it sounds too humorless in Liam’s ears. “I am just _that_ irresistible, aren’t I?”

Liam rolls his eyes, biting his lips to battle a smile that threatens to form there, and just like that, they’re back to normal again. Liam is not sure that’s what he wants, though, because they were normal before, and Liam still gets stuck thinking too much about Theo.

“It matters, you know,” Liam says in the end, starting up that conversation from last night because now seems like a better time to talk about it. And they do need to talk about it, because unspoken things aren’t spoken yet, and Liam still wants to know. “It matters to me what you want.”

“Why?” Theo asks, and Liam fights between the urge to rush over and punch some sense into him and the urge to pull him into his chest and whispers the reason into his hair.

In the end, he does nothing, opting to stay in place as he stares at Theo with intent. “What do you mean ‘why’? Because you—”

It’s so close but the words are stuck again in his throat, refusing to be let out. Theo raises an eyebrow, waiting patiently as Liam tries to work it out in his head. 

He’s going to do it, isn’t he? He’s going to be the first one to say it, and Theo can later rub it in his face.

“Because _you_ matter to me, you dick.”

There it is, and it’s so worth it, too, just to see the reaction on Theo’s face, the way his lips part, his breath caught, and his eyes widened as a wave of emotions crossover too quickly for Liam to name them all. Then there’s the smile that tugs at the corners of Theo’s lips, the one that he doesn’t bother hide.

It’s there and it’s beautiful, and blinding, and it’s the one that Liam wants to feel against his own lips, that Liam wants to see every morning when he wakes up and every night before he goes to sleep. It’s a good feeling, to know that he’s the reason for it. It’s thrilling and heady, and his heart skips a beat in his chest, and the smile brightens as Theo catches it too.

“I do?” he asks, smug.

Liam huffs, averting his eyes, fighting against the smile on his own lips. “Of course you do.”

He hears the shuffling on the bed as Theo stands up. He doesn’t look uncertain anymore, as he takes the first step closer to Liam. He looks determined, walking with a purpose, and Liam stands in place, bracing himself for impact.

Impact comes in the form of a kiss, gentle at first, then more heated as Liam can no longer keep his hands to himself and begin exploring. He tangles his fingers in the locs of Theo’s hair and the fabric of his t-shirt, and pulls him in closer, _deeper._

They’ve kissed so many times before, but somehow, this time feels different, _tastes_ different. There’s longing at the tip of Theo’s tongue, and something like affection—the kind that’s been buried too deep behind months-old doubt—on the roof of Theo’s mouth, and hope, too, in the way that their lips slotted so perfectly against one another.

They only part when biology demands it of them, with their breath effectively stolen away by the other and gaze caught on the other’s eyes. Liam stares into the blue/green/grey of Theo’s eyes and finds himself drown in them, in the mix of heaven that he has yearned for for so long.

“You matter to me too, you know,” Theo says, softly, on the wings of a whisper because at this distance, that’s all he needs for Liam to hear it.

“I better be,” Liam says, smiling, “else things are going to get real awkward between us.”

Theo hides his laugh in the corner of Liam’s mouth, and half of him wants to complain, because he wants to hear Theo’s laughter, but the other half is too happy to get to kiss Theo again. The latter wins out, and Liam is fine with that.

“Wait, just to be clear,” Theo says, once they’re parted again. “We’re not going to stop having sex, right? Because that would one fucking travesty, if we do.”

“Oh, God, no,” Liam says, appalled at the very idea alone. “I don’t want us to stop having sex. I just want to start more with you. You know— going on dates, holding hands, kissing in public. All that stuff.”

Theo doesn’t say anything right away, and that gets to Liam’s nerves. It makes him want to start rambling, mouth gaping as he tries to come up with a way to backpedal, but Theo kisses him again, allowing Liam to taste the sweet smile on his lips.

“I want that too,” Theo confesses against Liam’s lips, and the words taste like the best sort of drugs Liam could ever try.

They’re smiling each other like idiots, but Liam can’t find it in him to care, because now he has Theo in his arms, the way he’s always wanted him even before he realized it. Maybe it’s the reason why he didn’t catch it—his dad’s heartbeat and footstep getting closer until he’s Liam’s open door, knocking on the frame and startling them apart.

“As cute as that was,” David starts, smiling bright as he leans against the door frame, arms crossing over his chest, “dinner’s almost ready, and Liam, you need to go take a shower, buddy.”

“Oh, I—”

“Go on. I’ll keep your _boyfriend_ company while you’re gone.”

The label makes Liam’s heart flutter, because yeah, Theo is his _boyfriend_ now, and he can call him that in public, can scream it at the top of his lungs for everybody to know. There’s a skip in the rhythm of Theo’s heartbeat that tells Liam that the chimera feels the same thing, and Liam finds himself reluctantly pulling away from Theo’s hold and moves towards the bathroom. 

“Please don’t be too hard on him,” he tells his dad as he passes him.

“I can’t promise you that.”

There’s a pleading look on Theo’s face when he looks back, and Liam can only give him an encouraging smile and two thumbs up before abandoning him to David’s mercy.

He keeps the urge to laugh down, but breaks finally when the bathroom door is closed behind him, imagining the horror on Theo’s face as his dad begins with: “Theo, why don’t you take a seat?”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://roccketraccoon.tumblr.com)


End file.
